I. Field
The present invention relates generally to data communication and processing, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for providing an efficient control channel structure in a wireless local area network (WLAN) communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems have been widely deployed to provide various types of communication such as voice, packet data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users sequentially or simultaneously by sharing the available system resources. Examples of multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, and Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems.
In recent years, wireless local area networks (WLANs) have also been widely deployed in accordance with various WLAN standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g, etc.) to enable communication among wireless electronic devices (e.g., computers) via wireless link. A WLAN may employ devices called access points (or base stations) that act like hubs and/or routers and provide connectivity for other wireless devices in the network (e.g. user terminals or user stations). The access points may also connect (or “bridge”) the WLAN to wired LANs, thus allowing the wireless devices access to LAN resources.
In a wireless communication system, a radio frequency (RF) modulated signal from a transmitter unit may reach a receiver unit via a number of propagation paths. The characteristics of the propagation paths typically vary over time due to a number of factors, such as fading and multipath. To provide diversity against deleterious path effects and improve performance, multiple transmit and receive antennas may be used. If the propagation paths between the transmit and receive antennas are linearly independent (e.g., a transmission on one path is not formed as a linear combination of the transmissions on the other paths), then the likelihood of correctly receiving a data transmission increases as the number of antennas increases. Generally, diversity increases and performance improves as the number of transmit and receive antennas increases.
A MIMO system employs multiple (NT) transmit antennas and multiple (NR) receive antennas for data transmission. A MIMO channel formed by the NT transmit and NR receive antennas may be decomposed into NS spatial channels, with NS≦min{NT, NR}. Each of the NS spatial channels corresponds to a dimension. The MIMO system can provide improved performance (e.g., increased transmission capacity and/or greater reliability) if the additional dimensionalities created by the multiple transmit and receive antennas are utilized.
An exemplary MIMO WLAN system is described in the aforementioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/693,419, assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Such a MIMO WLAN system may be configured to provide various types of services and support various types of applications, and achieve a high level of system performance. In various embodiments, MIMO and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) may be employed to attain high throughput, combat deleterious path effects, and provide other benefits. Each access point in the system may be configured to support multiple user terminals. The allocation of downlink and uplink resources may be dependent on the requirements of the user terminals, the channel conditions, and other factors.
In one embodiment, the WLAN system as disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patent application employs a channel structure designed to support efficient downlink and uplink transmissions. Such a channel structure may comprise a number of transport channels that may be used for various functions, such as signaling of system parameters and resource assignments, downlink and uplink data transmissions, random access of the system, and so on. Various attributes of these transport channels may be configurable, which allows the system to easily adapt to changing channel and loading conditions. One of these transport channels, called forward control channel (FCCH), may be used by the access point to allocate resources (e.g., channel assignments) on the downlink and uplink. The FCCH may also be used to provide acknowledgment for messages received on another transport channel.
As disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patent application, in one embodiment, the FCCH can be transmitted or operable at different data rates (e.g., four different data rates). For example, the different data rates may include 0.25 bps/Hz, 0.5 bps/Hz, 1 bps/Hz, and 2 bps/Hz. However, in such a configuration, the rate employed on the FCCH is dictated by the worst case user in the system (i.e., the user that operates at the lowest data rate). This scheme is inefficient because a single user that cannot operate at a higher rate may reduce the efficiency and utilization of the FCCH, even though other users in the system may be able to operate at higher data rates.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for a method and apparatus to provide a more efficient control channel structure that is able to accommodate different users that may operate at different data rates.